


Too Many Buckys

by Lauralot



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - High School, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Cat Ears, Cat/Human Hybrids, Cosmic Cube, Dark Steve Rogers, Every au ever, Gen, Mermaids, Multiverse, Old Age, Omega Verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-19 14:45:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5970813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lauralot/pseuds/Lauralot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky wished that Steve could have the friend he remembered back.</p><p>But he didn't mean for it to turn out like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Abundance of Buckys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [osprey_archer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/osprey_archer/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Слишком много Баки](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7669786) by [Miarra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miarra/pseuds/Miarra)



“Bucky!”

Grinding his teeth, Bucky picks up his pace, hand clenching around the Cosmic Cube. _Just get it to the lab._ Then the stupid thing can be Stark’s problem, and Bucky can go smash punching bags until he doesn’t feel like crushing Steve’s throat.

“Bucky!” Steve’s running after him.

Bucky whirls around, glaring. The Cosmic Cube casts blue light over the walls. “ _What_?”

“Don’t hold it like that!” Steve’s face is flushed. He’s pissed as hell, but he’ll never admit it. And he must think Bucky’s too stupid to notice. “It’s not safe.”

“It’s not touching my skin.” Bucky tightens his metal fingers around the cube. “And it’s thanks to me that we even retrieved it, so don’t tell me how to—”

“You disobeyed direct orders! You can’t do that if you want to go into the field!”

“Your orders are stupid!” Bucky shouts. The slightest risk to him, and Steve orders Bucky to fall back. It’s pathetic. It’s _insulting._ “You don’t want me in the field anyway! You don’t want me to do anything.”

“That’s not true—” Steve begins, but Bucky cuts him off.

“You don’t want me at all! You just keep me around because you miss your stupid dead friend! You want me to be just like him and you want to keep me locked up in this tower! I’m not here to be your fantasy, Steve. I’m not going to let you control me!”

“Buck, I don’t want to control—”

“You’re a rotten liar,” Bucky snaps. “You think it doesn’t show all over your face, how disappointed you are?”

Steve falters for words. He can’t even defend himself, and Bucky’s tempted to _growl_. To smack him. The light of the Cosmic Cube is so vivid and cold on the walls.

“Well, I wish you had your stupid Bucky back too,” he says, so tense all over that he’s surprised the cube doesn’t crack in his hand. “Maybe then you’d have your perfect friend and leave me alone.”

Steve opens his mouth to answer, and that’s when the light becomes blinding.

The cube hums, the air around it thick with energy. It smells like ozone, the same scent he used to catch when they were hauling him out of the chair. It makes him go rigid, then stumbling. Whatever force the cube is emitting knocks him off balance, sending him tumbling. Bucky strikes something—someone—and hears a startled yelp. It’s not Steve’s voice. The hallway feels too narrow, suddenly, as though the walls he can’t see are closing in. He hears breathing. Too much breathing. The hairs on his neck rise.

It’s over as quickly as it begins. The light recedes back into the cube, and the first thing that Bucky can see is Steve’s face, pale and bewildered.

“Bucky?”

And behind Steve, a sea of heads raise.

It’s like Bucky’s wandered into a hall of mirrors. All he sees around Steve is himself. Himself in a SHIELD uniform. In his old military clothes. A Bucky with a beard. A Bucky with blue hair. A Bucky with two flesh hands emerging from under his sleeves.

He turns around, and there’s more doppelgangers behind him. One of them, dressed as the Winter Soldier, catches sight of Steve and narrows his eyes. Bucky braces himself for a fight as the doppelganger rushes forward, but just as quickly as he starts charging, two other Buckys grab hold of him.

Both of them are dressed as Captain America.

“Bucky?” Steve asks again. He sounds strangled.

“Uh,” says Bucky, digging for a smart remark. The best he can manage is “Well, take your pick.”

*

“Here you go.” The poor intern that Stark hauled out of some cubicle scrawls _100_ on the nametag before she hands it to the last Bucky. The man’s in his nineties, but he’s still got a metal arm grafted to him. When did he get away from HYDRA? Did the Steve in his world still freeze?

Bucky’s mind is buzzing with questions. A headache starts to throb behind his eyes. One hundred Buckys. One hundred and one, actually, because the intern wrote _Prime_ on Bucky’s nametag.

He snorted at that. So had some of the other Buckys.

They’ve already sorted themselves into something close to groups. The Buckys around him seem to be the most with it, for lack of a better term. None of them are staring blankly or blinking back tears like some of the others. Some are dressed as Winter Soldiers, others in civilian clothing or unaffiliated tactical suits. They all look alert with varying degrees of suspicion on their faces.

The wall farthest from the door houses the Hostile Winter Soldiers. The one who tried to attack Steve is in magnetic cuffs. Another cuffed Soldier had played traumatized, sidling up to Steve and shaking before attempting to stab him with a cry of “Hail HYDRA!” That one’s labeled as Bucky 62. A HYDRA true believer. Bucky wants to gag.

Then there are the Robot Buckys, grouped near the windows. Most of them are dressed as Winter Soldiers too, although there’s a few outliers. They just stare blankly, responding to questions with either single words or silence.

Nearest to the door are the Broken Buckys. They’re all cowering on the floor, and Bucky has to bite back the urge to shout at them whenever he looks their way. One of them is clutching a Bucky Bear to his chest.

There’s another Bucky Bear on the floor, but it looks more modern than the one Bucky 17 is clinging to. None of the Buckys has claimed it. It just sits there, as if it comes from a world entirely populated with inanimate toys.

The intern is approaching that bear with a nametag.

“Seriously?” Bucky mutters. At least no live bears popped up. There’s that.

There are scattered Buckys that don’t fit in any groups. Bucky 23, the merman in a plastic tub that Tony filled with water. His nametag is slapped to the tub’s side. Bucky 56, who’s dressed up like a Renaissance aristocrat. Bucky 74, whose name is actually Becky. And Bucky 81 has a dead-eyed look and a leather get-up that was definitely not intended for combat. Bucky shivers when he looks at that one for too long.

The intern places the _102_ nametag on the Bucky Bear with dark, trembling hands before she stands up to survey the room that Stark’s left her in charge of. He’s off trying to work out how to make sure the Cosmic Cube will send all these Buckys back where they ought to be.

“Um.” Bucky sees her speak more than he hears it. “Excuse me.”

Most of the Buckys don’t look up. Bucky 35, one of the closest Buckys to him, is whispering to Bucky 34. Bucky strains his ears to listen.

“—looking for the doppelgangers that will be of use to them,” Bucky 35 is muttering. He’s in street clothes, but unlike some of the other civilian-looking Buckys, he’s maintained a fighting weight. There are gloves on his hands. A lot of the civilian Buckys wear gloves. “The weak ones will probably be used for experiments, but they’ll want to see if the rest of us will play by their rules. Stark’s own army of super soldiers—”

“Bullshit,” Bucky says. Most everyone else in the room whips their head around to stare at him. “Stark’s still pissed at me for what happened to his parents. You think he’s going to want a hundred of us around?”

Bucky 35 meets his gaze, eyes unwavering. “He won’t need his army under his roof.”

“He has his suits,” Bucky fires back. “Why would he need a bunch of cyborgs?”

“Tony wouldn’t do that.” One of the Captain Americas, Bucky 91, stands up. “He’s a good man.”

“He’s not a good man.” Bucky 90, the other Captain America, snorts. “But he wouldn’t make an army of interdimensional slaves either.”

Bucky 35 only scowls. “Sure. This was all some freak accident, and we’ll go right back home, safe and sound.”

Bucky doesn’t argue with him. Mostly because it would be a waste of effort, but also because he really doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that this whole mess happened because he lost his temper.

“I will not serve as a soldier for some mortal man,” Bucky 56 announces. He has an accent that Bucky can’t place. “I hold my throne by divine providence, and anyone who dares to threaten my family’s reign will taste my blade and burn for eternity.”

“Fantastic,” Bucky 35 says. “If they don’t use you as a lab rat, they’ll throw you in a padded room.”

Bucky 17 begins to cry. One of the more competent Buckys rushes to his side.

“Traitors!” Bucky 62 shouts. “HYDRA saved your lives! They gave you everything! And this is how you repay them?”

“HYDRA stole me from the Soviets!” Bucky 9 shouts. His accent is Russian. “I owe no allegiance to thieves!”

Bucky catches a faint nod from Bucky 35 before all hell breaks loose.

One of the Buckys is shouting. Bucky 17 is on the floor, his bear knocked from his arms. Another of the Broken Buckys has a hand clamped over Bucky 17’s mouth. Bucky isn’t sure if it’s an attack or if he’s trying to stifle the crying.

There’s movement everywhere. Some of the competent Buckys dart toward the scuffle to intervene. Others, like Bucky 35, sit back, observing. The Hostile Winter Soldiers that haven’t been cuffed leap into action, probably viewing this as their chance to make a break for it. And the other Broken Buckys are trying to shuffle away, only to be knocked down or stepped on by their counterparts.

Bucky’s up immediately, trying to block the door. Although JARVIS can keep everyone in the building, he doesn’t want to risk the Buckys slipping free to wreak havoc indoors either. But then one of the Winter Soldiers starts pounding his fists into Bucky 11, who looks twelve years old at best, and who’s in a completely ridiculous ensemble with tights. And Bucky’s not about to watch a kid get beat senseless.

He tackles that Winter Soldier, rolling on the ground to avoid being trampled by everyone else. They knock someone else over in the process. Becky Barnes is hauling Bucky 17 out of the mess of struggling bodies. Bucky 23 is making shrill sounds and splashing at anyone who approaches him.

Bucky 102 remains motionless in the center of the room.

There’s a loud _clang_ that sends Bucky 62 sprawling on the floor. Steve stands in the doorway, shield in hand.

The Buckys freeze. They’ve seen him before in the hallway, but it doesn’t stop them from staring as if they’re in the presence of a god. Steve can do that, if he wants. Project this commanding aura that no one can ignore.

Bucky finds it aggravating as all hell.

“We’re going to get you home,” Steve says. He steps forward, and JARVIS shuts the door behind him. “All of you. As soon as we can. I know that this is unsettling for you.”

Like hell he does. He’s not the one surrounded by dozens of copies of himself. He’s not the one thrown out of the world he knows.

“But please don’t make this worse for yourselves,” Steve continues. “I want your time here to be as pleasant as it can be. I don’t want you to suffer. Any of you. Not ever.”

He slings the shield onto his back. The intern is on the floor. One of the Buckys must have knocked her over, or maybe she fell while trying to avoid the fight. Steve offers her a hand, voice softening. “You can go. I’m sorry Tony dragged you into this.”

The intern doesn’t leave right away, though. She stands, straightens her clothing, and abruptly kicks out and strikes her foot right into the ass of Bucky 56’s breeches.

Well, that answers the question of who knocked her over.

“You dare touch me?” Bucky 56 shrieks, whirling around. “The blood of _gods_ flows through me, you insolent—”

“Stop,” Steve says, moving between them. His mouth is set, hands raised, ready for a fight.

But Bucky 56 stills, staring up at him. “You’re so tall,” he says, hushed, as though he can’t believe it.

And Steve’s face softens, the way Bucky’s seen it go on the days when Peggy forgets him. “Sit down,” he says quietly. Then louder: “Please, everyone sit down. We’re going to fix this. I promise.”

And hell, this is what Steve’s wanted all along, isn’t it? Some star-struck _idiot_ to look after. A Bucky who remembers him, who’s content to be sheltered and coddled. He wants someone helpless. The way he’s always wanted Bucky to be, because Steve used to be weak and now he wants to prove that he isn’t. That he’s stronger than Bucky.

Bucky turns on his heel and follows the intern out of the room. He hears JARVIS click the lock behind them.

Steve thinks he’s so perfect? Bucky will show him just what a mess he could be.


	2. A Surfeit of Steves

“How could you let him do this?”

Even as he’s shouting, Steve knows this isn’t Tony’s fault. Tony couldn’t have expected Bucky to charge in and grab the Cosmic Cube out of containment. He couldn’t have exactly tackled Bucky to stop him when Bucky had his hands on one of the most powerful objects in the universe. And he couldn’t have known what Bucky would do with the cube.

But damn it, the lab is flooded with a hundred Steves, and Steve’s got to yell at _someone._

“Hi, Tony,” Tony says flatly, glaring. “I’m so glad you’re all right after being trampled by dozens of me. Is there anything I can get for you? A first aid kit? A ride to the hospital? A stiff drink?”

Steve wants to throttle Bucky. Or at the very least, scream in frustration. “Are you hurt?”

“No. But one Captain Self-Righteous is bad enough to deal with, so I’d like to emphasize that request for a drink.”

JARVIS managed to seal off the most dangerous areas of the lab, so at least Steve didn’t arrive to total chaos.

Though that’s not saying much. What little space is left in the lab is now crammed with bodies, some tall and broad and others small and frail. There’s shoving, murmuring, and a good chance that a fight could break out at any minute like it did among the Buckys.

There are Steves dressed like it’s still WWII. Steves in the SHIELD stealth suit. He sees the outfit that Coulson designed, street clothes, uniforms he doesn’t recognize. One poor bastard is wearing the USO costume.

There’s a merman flopping on the floor. One of the Steves has cat ears flattened back against his head. There’s a scrawny Steve in a Starbucks apron. A few Steves are in Winter Soldier uniforms. There’s a small teenager with a piercing through his lip and what’s either henna or Sharpie on his hands. A blond baby is crying in the arms of one of the bigger Steves.

“I guess I should get the nametags back out,” Tony mutters.

“ _You_ hand them out this time,” Steve says sharply. “And you owe Adepero a raise.”

“Who?”

“That poor intern that you forced to deal with all the Buckys!”

“Oh. Yeah. Right.” Tony rubs at his head. “Sorry, I don’t think all that clearly right after I’ve been under a stampede. Sure. A raise, and one of those edible bouquet things. People still like those, right?”

Steve doesn’t answer. He’s busy staring through the doors JARVIS locked behind him. Bucky’s out there, leaning against a workbench. He still has the Cosmic Cube, casually tossing it up and down. He’s smirking. The cube casts blue light over his face with each toss, making his features seem almost malevolent.

Steve doesn’t have to ask for JARVIS to open the door.

“What were you thinking?” he demands.

“Look how _old_ that one is,” Bucky says, pointing to a frail, stooped man. “You think he never got the serum, or it just didn’t work?”

“ _Bucky._ ” It takes all Steve has not to reach out and shake him. If he’d just stop _grinning._ “We don’t even know if we can get the Buckys back home. Why would you go and make it worse?”

“Tony should get the fish Steve some water.” Bucky’s still tossing the cube. Another reason not to slap him. “Otherwise he’ll dry up. Guess we know which Bucky he pairs up with, huh?”

“Is that what you were trying to accomplish? You wanted the Buckys to have their Steves with them?”

“I’m surprised there’s as many Steves as there are Buckys,” Bucky says. “You’d think at least a few of them would have kicked it as kids, wouldn’t you?”

Steve works to keep his composure. Bucky’s always been capable of casual cruelty. But years ago, it had only slipped out when he was overtired or stressed to his breaking point. Now he’s so awful so often that he hardly seems like the same man. It isn’t fair for Steve to judge him by the past, not after all he’s endured. But it hurts to hear his friend’s voice so cold and mocking. “Why would you say that?”

Bucky stops tossing the cube. His mental fingers curl around it, and Steve can’t help but cringing, thinking of what awful thing he could summon up next. “You don’t get it,” he says, mouth twisted with disgust.

“Get what?” Steve can feel his patience fraying. They’re stuck in a complete clusterfuck, Bucky is playing catch with one of the most dangerous objects in the universe, and he doesn’t have time to play a guessing game. “What the hell are you trying to achieve, Buck? I don’t have time for this—”

“But you have time for all the others!” Bucky shouts.

The room floods with blue light.

“You’ll fall all over yourself to comfort the doppelgangers! They all look at you like you’re a god! So traumatized and adoring and everything you’ve ever wanted, aren’t they? Is that what I should have done when I came back? Cried and whimpered and worshipped the ground you walked on? Would you like me then?”

“Bucky!” The room is crackling with energy. Steve can feel it tugging at his skin, pulling at his hair like static. “Put down the—”

“You want me to be pathetic and broken! I’m not a victim the way that you want me to be! You think you’re so much better and you have to be there to fix me! Well, look at yourself, you piece of shit! You’re as pathetic as I am!”

There are tears in Bucky’s eyes. The light of the cube turns them fluorescent blue.

“Buck.” Steve’s winded. It’s not from the cube’s energy.

Bucky storms past him, toward the doors.

One of the Steves is pressed against the glass, watching with feral, hungry eyes. His stealth suit is black. In place of the star on his chest, HYDRA’s logo is emblazoned in scarlet. Bucky stares at him.

JARVIS doesn’t open the doors.

Bucky presses his lips to the glass, leaning up on his toes so that his mouth is parallel to the HYDRA Steve’s. “Why don’t you send me off with him?” Bucky demands, his words distorted by the glass against his lips. “You think I’m just as awful.”

The HYDRA Steve’s hands curl into fists. His stance shifts, like he’s about to try kicking through the glass.

“Buck—”

“You don’t get it!” Bucky pulls away from the doors. “I shouldn’t have wished for this. I should have wished to be broken. Then you’d like me. If I were broken.”

“Don’t!”

But Bucky just lets out a frustrated scream and drops the Cosmic Cube. It falls to the tile, sending a shock through the whole floor. There’s immediate silence from the room of Steves.

Bucky spins around and storms off.

*

Tony didn’t give the Steves numbers on their nametags. Of course not. That would be simple and allow some measure of order. Instead, each Steve has been saddled with a nickname.

Swamp Thing. Captain Ameowica. Pint Size. Booty Shorts. Berries and Cream. Senior Discount. Americano.

“I hate you,” Steve says, and many of his counterparts nod.

Tony just shrugs, nearly dropping the wriggling merman that he and a few of the Steves are trying to move into a tank.

“You got a tail, son?” The HYDRA Steve—dubbed Captain Crazypants by Tony—reaches out with cuffed hands and flicks Captain Ameowica’s ear. “Can you purr?”

Captain Ameowica arches his back, moving away. “Don’t touch me.”

“That’s no fun.” The HYDRA Steve leers. “I can make you purr. But I can make you _howl_ too...”

The teenage Steve, labeled Problem Child, rolls his eyes and shifts to face away from the pair of them.

It gives Steve chills, watching his HYDRA counterpart. He’s not like the Winter Soldier Steves, with their metal arms and blank stares. There’s a sadism behind his grin, a bloodlust in his eyes. At least the Cosmic Cube is safely locked away now. But Steve won’t feel settled until that man is off of his planet.

A cry breaks through the muttering in the room. The baby Steve, Pint Size, is crying again. The Steve labeled Father Figure is carefully rocking and shushing him, but it’s not making much difference.

Problem Child sighs.

“Children should be seen and not heard,” HYDRA Steve says lightly. His smile is murderous.

“Leave the kid alone,” Booty Shorts says. His fists clench inside his leather gloves.

“Shut him up and I will.”

“Bucky Bear!” the kid wails.

The Bucky Bear on the floor in the other holding room. Steve straightens up. “Tony—”

“On it,” Tony says. “JARVIS, tell Bruce to bring down that teddy bear from the Bu—” He casts a glance at all the Steves and falters. “From. Well. You know. Make sure it’s the unaffiliated bear.”

Unbelievable. There’s no Bucky in the baby’s world, so the cube brought over a teddy bear. Steve has to fight off the urge to pinch himself. They weren’t exposed to any sort of nerve gas retrieving the cube, were they? Something that could make this all a dream?

“Your Bucky’s alive.”

Steve raises his head. The Steve in uniform he’d worn during the Battle of New York—Coulson Couture—is staring at him, wide-eyed. His face is taut and uncertain, as if he wants to hope but can’t bring himself to allow it.

 _So is yours._ But Steve can’t say that. What if he destroys the time lines of other worlds? He could try and tell this Steve where to find his Bucky and end up causing both of their deaths.

“I—yeah. He is.”

“Where did you find him?” Another of the Steves calls out. He’s in street clothing, and he looks desperate. He must be searching for his own Bucky.

“I didn’t find him. He found me.” Steve shakes his head. He can still hear the hurt in Bucky’s voice, still see the tears streaking down his face. “And now I need to find him.”

He leaves Tony to watch over the rest of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who have been asking what fics, if any, the Buckys take inspiration from, here's a list:
> 
> The blue-haired Bucky comes from another fic of mine, [_And I Am Always with You._](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1504124/chapters/3176834)
> 
> Bucky Bear and Pint Size Steve are inspired by the _A-Babies vs. X-Babies_ Marvel comic.
> 
> Bucky 17 comes from my series [Alexander Pierce should have died slower,](http://archiveofourown.org/series/114886) as does Father Figure Steve. The Bucky who puts a hand over Bucky 17's mouth is the Winter from the fic [_You Look Familiar Like My Mirror_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4796900/chapters/10978151), which I am co-writing with [ravenously.](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenously/pseuds/ravenously)
> 
> Bucky 23 comes from my fic [_Where the People Are._](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5775820/chapters/13311073) Bucky 56 is from ravenously's fic [_Inside Me Blood of Kings._](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5447645) Bucky 74 is from my fic [_And Eve Was Weak._](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3510530) Bucky 35 is inspired by the Bucky in [osprey_archer's](http://archiveofourown.org/users/osprey_archer/pseuds/osprey_archer) [Reciprocity](http://archiveofourown.org/series/161309) series. And Captain Crazypants comes from [_The Mirror of Life_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5214533/chapters/12021911) by [StarsGarters.](http://archiveofourown.org/users/StarsGarters/pseuds/StarsGarters)


	3. A Surplus of Soldiers

Bucky’s room is so bare.

He’s been at the tower for over a year now, but the space still looks about as lived in as a vacant hotel room. There are a few paintings Tony had placed on the walls that Bucky never bothered to take down, but that’s it. No posters. No personal effects on the dresser or the desk. No sign that he lives here at all.

Sometimes, Steve wonders if it’s not a defense mechanism: protecting himself by refusing to give away any hints as to what matters to him. At other times, Steve just wonders if anything matters to Bucky at all anymore.

Bucky’s sitting on the bed. His right hand is fumbling at his left shoulder, trying to detach the prosthetic.

“Bucky?”

“Get out!” Bucky shouts. He turns his back to Steve, curling in on himself as he works.

“Buck, I’m sorry,” Steve tries. “I never meant to make you feel like you needed to earn my affection.”

“I don’t want to see you!” The metal arm is still attached. It’s never taken Bucky this long to remove it before. And his right hand looks _wrong_ , his wrist limp and his arm at an odd angle—

“Is your wrist _broken_?” Steve’s voice cracks despite his efforts to control it.

“ _Get out_!” The left arm detaches and just like that, Bucky’s hurling it at Steve. But his aim is off so badly that Steve doesn’t even have to move to avoid it.

It’s not the broken wrist. The Winter Soldier wouldn’t let a broken wrist affect his performance. There are still tears on Bucky’s face, and he’s still huddled up on the bed. “Go away, Steve.”

“What happened?” Could one of the other Steves have hurt him? Or one of the Buckys? But Steve would have noticed. No matter how angry at Bucky he was. And Bucky had been tossing the Cosmic Cube with no problem.

“I wished to be broken.” Bucky shakes his head. “It killed my left arm and snapped the right one.”

Steve’s stomach lurches. “You need to see Bruce,” he says. “He can set your wrist—”

“No.”

“Buck, if you don’t set it now, you’ll have to break it again. Tony can get your arm working and—”

“No!” Bucky shouts. “I don’t want him touching my arm! I can fix it myself! I can set bones myself! You never think I can do anything!”

It seems like he’s going to keep shouting, but Bucky bites his lip, suddenly fuming in silence instead. Steve steps away from the prosthetic on the floor before he sits down. If Bucky thinks he’ll try and pick it up to take to Tony, he might just attempt to claw Steve’s eyes out.

“I know you can do things, Buck,” he says. Bucky only rolls his eyes. “But when you’re hurt, I don’t think you should have to do it on your own.”

“It doesn’t _hurt._ It’s just annoying.”

“You don’t have to see anyone,” Steve says. “But can I wrap your wrist? Please?” Bucky can’t do that with his other arm off and not functioning.

Bucky’s silent for a moment. He gives a lopsided shrug, and Steve gets back on his feet, heading for the dresser. He opens the drawer where Bucky keeps his workout clothes, rummaging around for the athletic tape.

“I’m sorry for making you feel unwanted,” Steve says. “That was never my intention.”

“Let it go, Steve.”

“I can’t let it go,” Steve insists. He closes the drawer and makes his way back to the bed. “I—I wanted you to feel like I’d always be there for you, no matter what might have happened. But I never meant to give you the impression that you had to be hurt or broken. I never wanted you to think that was the only way I’d care.”

“You don’t like me,” Bucky says. He’s glaring down at his lap, and his tone is petulant.

“That’s not fair, Buck.” Gently, Steve rolls back Bucky’s sleeve. He tries to ease the wrist back into its natural position, but Bucky grits his teeth and forces it that way before Steve gets the chance. “I love you more than anything in the world. But you make it hard to like you. You won’t let me in.”

“You wouldn’t like what you find if I did,” Bucky mutters. “I’m not your best friend anymore.”

“You think I haven’t changed too?” Steve asks. “We can’t go back to the way things were. I know that. That doesn’t mean I love you any less, Buck.”

“You’re always mad at me.”

“And you’re not mad at me?” Steve pauses in the wrapping, rubbing his free hand down Bucky’s back. He’s careful to avoid the shoulder socket where Bucky’s prosthetic joins on. “Bucky, I _am_ sorry. I can’t promise that I won’t make mistakes again, but I swear I’ll try. As soon as we get this mess sorted out, we can talk, okay? We’ll figure things out. Learn how to actually communicate with each other. I can promise that.”

Bucky doesn’t answer. His eyes are still wet. Steve finishes wrapping his wrist, tearing the tape. He means to stand up and put the tape back in the drawer, but instead he finds himself pressing his lips to Bucky’s forehead. “I do love you. More than anything.”

Bucky jerks his head up sharply. Steve steps back, expecting a punch or a shout. He should have known better than to lean over Bucky like that, making him feel trapped. But it’s so _hard_ to give him any affection, and Steve didn’t think—

Grabbing the collar of Steve’s shirt, Bucky tugs him back down. Their mouths crash against each other, and Bucky’s hand is like a vice holding Steve in place. It’s not until he manages to lay his hands on Bucky’s face and guide him that the kiss feels anything like a kiss ought to.

It’s not until Steve’s lips are swelling that Bucky pulls away.

“The other Buckys are stupid,” Bucky says abruptly, before Steve can get out any of the sappy thoughts running through his mind. “I want them to go away.”

“It’s not gonna be that easy,” Steve points out. “We can’t just give them the Cosmic Cube and have them wish to go home. The cube would probably go right with them, and then everyone else would be stuck here.”

 **ACTUALLY, CAPTAIN ROGERS,** JARVIS says. **SIR BELIEVES HE HAS FOUND A SOLUTION.**

*

“Meet Chuck Taylor,” Tony says, gesturing to the skinny Steve beside him.

“You named him after his shoes?” Bucky asks, sounding thoroughly unimpressed.

“Listen, you try coming up with nicknames for a hundred different Steves. They all start to blur together after a while. And after all he’s told me, we might have to change his name to Miss Cleo anyway.”

“I know I don’t look like much,” Chuck Taylor says. “But I went through a version of Project Rebirth in my world, too. It affected my mind rather than my body.”

“It enhanced your intelligence?” Steve guesses. Maybe this counterpart can build a transdimensional portal over the course of an afternoon.

“To an extent. But it also gave me extrasensory abilities. If I touch a person, I can see into their mind,” Chuck Taylor explains. “I can see the worlds that all of these Steves and Buckys are meant to be in. If I’m holding the cube, I can envision those worlds and wish them back to their homes.”

Steve thinks of the Buckys who won’t speak at all, or the baby Steve Rogers. That would definitely help with them. “But how would you get home?”

Chuck Taylor smiles. “I can show people my mind as well. If I go last, one of you can wish me back to my world.”

“Bullshit,” Bucky says. “How do we know you’re not making this up? You could be after the Cosmic Cube for yourself.”

“If you have doubts, you can look into my head.” Chuck Taylor only shrugs calmly. “You’ll see that my intentions are pure.”

Bucky scowls.

“I’ll do it,” Steve says quickly. “You can show me. Buck, it’s the best option we’ve got.”

“So should I get all the super soldiers together?” Tony asks. “Mix and match the sets before we send ‘em home?”

“ _No_.” Steve, Bucky, and Chuck Taylor speak in unison.

“It’d be a bloodbath,” Bucky says.

“Some of Steves don’t even know their Buckys are still alive,” Steve adds. “We could destroy the timelines in their worlds and cause all sorts of chaos.”

“I remember how desperate I was before I got my Bucky back,” Chuck Taylor says. “I’d have grabbed onto the first Bucky I saw and refused to let go. And I’ve seen that Captain HYDRA’s mind. He’d try to kill all the Buckys.”

“So we need a more systematic approach.” Tony frowns. “Damn it, I’ve got tickets to _Hamilton_ tonight. I was hoping to get this over fast.”

*

The plan is to call each of the Buckys out into the hall one at a time. Chuck Taylor will ask them if they know Steve Rogers. If they do, he’ll ask how they know him, to determine if they’re still on the run after escaping HYDRA, if they’re reconciled with their Steve, if they’re still in WWII, or if they’re currently HYDRA captives in the process of being broken. Then he’ll use his powers to ensure that they’re telling the truth.

Any Buckys who don’t know their Steve or who’re on the run or otherwise away from them will be sent home then and there. After that, they’ll do the same thing with the Steves. Then the Buckys and Steves that are left can join up with their counterparts to be sent home.

Almost none of the Buckys in Winter Soldier uniforms know who Steve Rogers is. The few that do are still on the run. Bucky 23 doesn’t speak any English, but Chuck Taylor manages to hold one of his fins long enough to tell them that he knows merman Steve. When they find Chuck Taylor’s Bucky, he just sits in the hall with them.

Bucky 56 shouts at them that they have no right to hold a prince against his will, and that he’ll have all their heads for this. When asked if he knows Steve, he demands to know what they’ve done with his husband. Chuck Taylor only manages to touch him in the form of a slap that Bucky 56 lays across his face.

“You’re beneath me, all of you,” he spits, although his demeanor changes whenever he looks at Steve. “Though you are certainly impressive.”

“If you ever get like that,” Tony tells Bucky, “I’m throwing you out.”

“If I ever get like that,” Bucky answers, “kill me.”

Some of the Buckys are too traumatized or mind-wiped to speak, staring blankly into space. Chuck Taylor usually asks them a question a few times, softly, and then uses his powers when he gets no response. 

The method works well enough until they get to Bucky 19. Then Chuck Taylor jerks away, wide-eyed and gasping.

“He knows Steve,” Chuck Taylor manages, sounding like he’s about to be sick. His own Bucky rubs his shoulders. “He knew him.”

Just like that, the wide-eyed fearful look vanishes from Bucky 19’s face, replaced with a grin that makes Steve’s blood run cold. “Yeah, I knew Stevie. Mouthy little punk, but he was the best cocksucker in all of Brooklyn. Last I heard, HYDRA’s got him in ice like the failed freak show he is.” His eyes flicker over Chuck Taylor, and then lock onto Steve. “But the pair of you look like you’d be just as fun. And I’m guessing, what with the two of you, that there’s just as many Stevies here as there are Buckys. Won’t this a fun little—”

There’s a flash of blue light. When it settles, Bucky 19’s gone. Chuck Taylor has the Cosmic Cube in his hands. He drops it quickly, like he’s afraid to even hold it while that Bucky is fresh in his mind. He’s breathing rapidly.

“What’s wrong?” his Bucky asks. “What did you see?”

But Chuck Taylor just shakes his head.

It takes a good ten minutes before he’s ready to look into any more Buckys’ minds. The rest of them go through without incident. Steve’s grateful. Chuck Taylor couldn’t handle another mind fuck like that.

Steve’s not sure how well he’d be able to cope, either.

*

Bucky 4 casts a nervous glance around the room.

It had seemed like a better idea to let one Bucky find his Steve at a time, instead of shoving them all in a room together. A lot of the Buckys left seemed either emotionally fragile or combative. A lot of the Steves did too.

Slowly, Bucky 4 takes off his cap. There’s a pair of cat ears, dark brown, flattened against his head.

Smiling, Captain Ameowica springs up. Tony had given him a hat to try and keep Captain HYDRA away from his ears, and now he pulls it off. Bucky 4’s own ears perk up happily.

Steve’s glad they’ve already sent Captain HYDRA home. He doesn’t want to imagine the nonsense he’d be spewing at the sight of two cat-men to torment.

When Bucky 56 strides into the room, the Steve that Tony’s dubbed Berries and Cream gets out of his chair and actually bows, almost kneeling on the floor. Steve feels uneasy as Chuck Taylor sends the two of them off.

As Bucky 23’s tub of water is dragged into the room, Swamp Thing Steve shrieks and pulls himself out of his own tank, dragging himself to his Bucky. Steve is fairly sure the two of them are engaging in foreplay when Chuck Taylor uses the cube to send them off. Mermaid culture must be very different from that of humans.

Bucky 17 barely gets two steps into the room before the Steve with the Father Figure nametag is up and moving toward him. Bucky 17 flinches, clinging to his bear, but his Steve softly says, “It’s me, Buck,” and just like that, Bucky 17 throws himself into his Steve’s arms.

Bucky 35 gives each of the Steves a scrutinizing look that’s almost a glare. He paces in front of their chairs for over a minute before something seems to strike him as familiar. He approaches one of the Steves, taking his hand as if to hold it. But then he moves the hand, guiding it to cup his face, and that Steve pulls away.

“Don’t do that,” the Steve says, annoyed. “I hate it when you move my hands like that.”

But then he smiles, the irritation fading, and stops trying to tug his hand free. “It’s you.”

Bucky 35 nods.

Problem Child Steve pairs up with a teenage Bucky. Bucky 11, who looks around twelve, leaves with a Captain America. Barista Steve, dubbed Americano by Tony, is paired with a civilian Bucky who smiles at him and asks, “Hey, remember me from the coffee shop?”

“Well,” Bucky says, once Tony’s used the cube to send Chuck Taylor and his Bucky packing, “I guess you’re not the worst Steve out there.”

Steve smiles. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

“Hey,” Tony says, sliding the cube back into containment. “Is something wrong with your arm, Original Flavor? Need me to take a look?”

“No,” Bucky snaps, shoulders drawing up. But then he stops, letting out a slow breath. “I can handle it. But...thanks. For asking.”

He doesn’t pull away when Steve drapes an arm over his shoulders as they walk toward the elevators, either. Steve tries to hide his smile, but he wouldn’t trade a hundred Buckys for this little bit of progress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bucky 19, like Captain HYDRA, comes from the fic _[The Mirror of Life](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5214533/chapters/12021911)_ by [StarsGarters.](http://archiveofourown.org/users/StarsGarters/pseuds/StarsGarters)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [For Maybe in Another World](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8165963) by [Mr_Phich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_Phich/pseuds/Mr_Phich), [WhatEvenAmI](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatEvenAmI/pseuds/WhatEvenAmI)




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